TCC score a facile 3-wkt win against TWCC

TCC defeated TWCC by a mere 3 wickets in a low-scoring match at Shiloh on Saturday. Thanks to Shaluka and Rahul from Anzacs for excellent umpiring and Shibu Vachery for discharging the 12th man duties with élan.

Aravind wasn't lucky with the coin yet again and TWCC after a little deliberation decided to bat first. The match started at 11:15am. The openers didn't seem to have much of an idea while facing Aravind and Amar. The ball kept missing their blades and finally Aravind shortened Achyut's misery by trapping him in front. Sanjay seemed like a man on a mission. He seemed the most stylish and technically correct batsmen in the entire TWCC line-up and was in no mood to give up. Amit was cleaned up at the other end by Aravind off a ball that kept low. Sanjay was dropped by Neeraj off Vijay's first over and he made us pay dearly for the lapse by scoring 50 odd runs. There was a good partnership of 86 runs for the 3rd wicket between Johnny and Sanjay off 16 overs. Even Charan seemed to struggle when he was brought in a tad prematurely to dislodge the pair. Sanjay displayed a wide array of cricketing shots including one that made it into the infamous Shiloh pond and needed a replacement ball. Cashif dropped an absolute dolly off Sanjay at point, the unlucky bowler being Nutty. Johnny succumbed to Nutty's guile and holed out to Aravind at long-on. Sanjay didn't survive for long and did exactly the same and was dismissed for 57. The rest of the TWCC batsmen failed to cash in on the initiative provided by Johnny and Sanjay and were bulldozed for 134. Sundar exhibited some good fielding skills by gobbling Mahesh's skier off Aravind and ran Ramesh out with a nice pickup and throw into Neeraj's gloves who in turn completed the formalities. Aravind donned the mantle of wrecker-in-chief by capturing 4 wickets. Charan captured 3 scalps while Nutty bagged 2 vital wickets.

Subway sandwiches showed up a little late and our openers decided to start the chase on just their adrenalin. Devin and Mahesh opened the bowling for TWCC. Both bowled stump to stump, but the former seemed to generate some healthy pace and bounce off the wicket. Aravind decided to have a go at the sandwiches right away and was dismissed trying to cut Devin. Manoj was promoted up the order, but failed to grab the opportunity. He was adjudged leg before off Devin for 4 and we were teetering at 15/2 in just the 4th over. Vijay and Charan started the repair work slow and steady by working singles and dispatching anything loose. Vijay signaled his intentions by square-cutting and flicking Devin for 2 consecutive boundaries. Charan was intent on staying for the long haul and he did so in superb fashion. Achyut was repeatedly sent over the fence toward the railroad tracks by Charan and yet the bowler seemed very eager to return to his bowling mark in some kind of hurry. Just when the pair seemed to be going great guns having put together an invaluable 61 runs off just 8 overs, Vijay was dismissed off Amit. The ball seemed to stop on him and he lobbed a simple return catch back to the bowler. Rajesh U. was sent in to spend some time in the middle, but he didn't cash in. Having survived a dropped catch and a run-out opportunity earlier, he was caught just short of the crease by a good throw from the deep and good work by their dapper stumper Sanjay. The remaining 49 runs took forever and we lost 3 more wickets due to our casual approach. Neeraj had to step in to make sure we didn't do anything crazy and he checked in with a boundary off a flowing signature extra-cover drive. Charan battled thru his cramps and took us home without further ado.

MoM - Charan for a well-made 68 and 3 wickets.